Lemon Ricotta Cookies

These soft, cake-like cookies are bursting with lemon flavor. These Lemon Ricotta Cookies are some of the best cookies I have ever made!

This past weekend I was in my hometown of St. Louis. Apparently they skipped spring in the Lou and went straight to summer – it was so hot! Summer always makes me think of lemon desserts. The bright citrusy flavor and the yellow color reminds me of long sunny summer days. So I decided to make these lemon ricotta cookies to celebrate the season. These cookies are like mini cakes! They are light, fluffy, and moist. The lemon flavor in the actual cookie is subtle and when paired with the lemon glaze the flavor really pops.

The dough is very moist – more like a thick cake batter than a cookie dough.

Ready for baking.

Cookies cooling, getting ready for the glaze.

The glazed cookies. I love the specks of lemon zest!

This recipe is from Giada, one of my favorites on the Food Network. She uses ricotta in a lot of her recipes – I love the Italian twist on this cookie. These Lemon Ricotta Cookies might become your new favorite!

These soft, cake-like cookies are bursting with lemon flavor. These Lemon Ricotta Cookies are some of the best cookies I have ever made!

Ingredients

For the Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

For the Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

For the Cookies

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl using a handheld mixer, combine the butter and the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest and beat to combine.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

For the Glaze

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Just made these cookies. They came out delicious!! I did put the bowl in the refrigerator in between batches during baking to keep dough chilled so they would not flatten. In my oven at 350 they took about 18 minutes to bake. These cookies are a keeper.😊

Made this cookies tonight they turned out flat as a pancake. Tasted good but I wonder if maybe less
ricotta cheese maybe 1 cup versus 2 cups. Also I kept leaving them in the oven longer they never browned on the bottom. I was very disappointed in how they turned out. It seemed something was missing in the receipe since they flattened, But as I said they tasted good.